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"Men tended to drive faster, commit more driving violations, were more inclined to take drink or illegal drugs while driving and were more willing than women to drive for longer periods without a break."

Women outlive men by more than four years and this has affected the amount they are charged for life assurance, or the amount they receive when they buy an annuity.

Under the Brussels plan, women would pay more for life assurance, but their annuity income would be more generous.

The Government broadly supports the draft directive, which will be debated at an employment council meeting in Brussels next month.

The proposal is supposed to ensure that women and men are treated the same.

But the Lords EU committee said insurers were justified in taking gender into account when setting premiums.

The Association of British Insurers told the committee that it was "naive" to assume, as the European Commission did, that premiums and annuity rates would converge at a halfway point between the male and females rates if discrimination were outlawed.

"Far more likely is that premiums would move towards the higher of the two current prices," the ABI said.

It explained that this was because the inability to price insurance accurately represented "a real loss in efficiency". As a result there would be more risk and insurers would need to hold more capital.

Lord Williamson of Horton, the committee chairman, said: "The commission needs to do more work to see where the balance of advantage lies for European consumers.

"As they stand, the proposals will lead to anomalies and inconsistencies.

"In time, gender can and should be taken out of most calculations for car insurance premiums.

"But when companies set premiums for newly-qualified drivers with no track record, gender matters."